A 37-year-old man has been sent to jail for four years and two months for his role in a robbery that was carried out on two Brazilian escorts at an apartment in Co Roscommon last year.
A circuit court judge was told today that Ioan Galben was one of three people who have now pleaded guilty to what he described as a nasty and premeditated commercial robbery on two vulnerable victims.
Galben, a father of two from Romania, pleaded guilty to robbery at an apartment in Roscommon town on 28 October 2019. The court was told the two Brazilians were working as escorts here and moved around the country from town to town.
Advertising on an Irish website for escorts they rented an apartment for a week at a time.
On 28 October when the door was opened in the apartment where they were staying in Roscommon, two men pushed past them and one used a knife to threaten them.
They were robbed of other valuables and cash and one escort was pushed to the ground and kicked in the back by Galben.
Three weeks later the gardaí arrested three men. They were all charged in connection with the incident and they have all now pleaded guilty before the circuit court.
Judge Francis Comerford described the incident as nasty, professional, premeditated robbery using force on two vulnerable victims.
He said it was a commercial robbery and Galban had kicked one of the escorts while she was on the ground during the course of the robbery.
He sentenced Galban to five years in jail but suspended the last 10 months of the sentence.
The two other men who pleaded guilty in relation to the robbery will be sentenced in November.
